Gloucester and Camden Counties are reeling from nearly $3.7 million in DOGE cuts to their health departments
Projects affected range from elevator repairs to staffing for STD programs.
Surprised and distressed, health officials in Camden and Gloucester Counties are reporting significant budget cuts authorized by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.
In all, health programs were cut by $2 million in Camden County and almost $680,000 in Gloucester County. Burlington County lost $1.1 million in health funding, The Inquirer reported earlier this week.
Combined, the three South Jersey counties must somehow make up for nearly $3.8 million in lost subsidies.
In Gloucester County, programs affected include food inspections and disease tracking. In Camden County, the cuts will initially hurt infrastructure improvements in public health buildings.
The White House has not responded to requests for comment.
According to DOGE directives, $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding that was slated for grants to state and county public health departments and nonprofit groups nationwide was cut on March 24. Of that amount, $350 million was to have gone to New Jersey, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Health said.
To combat the cuts, 23 states — including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware — filed a lawsuit in federal court in Rhode Island against the Trump administration on April 1.
On April 3, Judge Mary McElroy granted an emergency temporary restraining order to halt the funding cuts.
On Friday, according to an Inquirer analysis, many of the funding cuts were removed from a list of terminated grants maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But New Jersey officials said Monday afternoon that they were unaware that cuts had been removed. And, officials added, because McElroy’s order is only temporary, they would proceed as though the budget reductions will be permanent.
Linda Brown, who heads the New Jersey Association of County and City Health Officials (NJACCHO), said that her organization was working to close out all grants by noon Tuesday, in compliance with previously ordered deadlines. The NJACCHO has received no notification from the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services to do otherwise, she said.
“No one has yet told us to modify the goal of making these cuts,” Brown said.
The N.J. health department did not respond to a request for comment.
The NJACCHO is an organization of municipal and county public health leaders and allied health professionals. Trump administration officials tell New Jersey health department officials the amount of money being cut, and the department relays the amounts to the NJACCHO.
“It’s baffling to see the current administration taking this money,” said Michelle Baylor, director of the Gloucester County Department of Health & Human Services. “We are the ones making sure water is safe, food establishments are safe. We give vaccines and rabies treatment if you’re bitten by an animal.
“All these efforts are crucial for public health.”
The cuts came without warning, in some cases leaving projects unfinished, with officials scrambling to patch newly torn holes in their budgets.
“It’s really a waste not to be able to see through certain projects,” said Caryelle Vilaubi, director of the Camden County Department of Health and Human Services. “We’re going to have to work across all departments and see where there’s capital available.
“We have to make some tough decisions.”
In Camden County, $1.4 million of the slashed $2 million has already been spent or is obligated in contracts and now won’t be reimbursed by the federal government, Vilaubi said. The remaining $600,000 is unspent but is earmarked for vital projects that now may go unfunded, she said.
Vilaubi explained that the bulk of the money was for long-neglected infrastructure projects, such as repairing elevators, upgrading security in buildings, and replacing a generator used to safeguard vaccine storage.
The county has also lost $100,000 meant for staffing and supplies in its sexually transmitted disease program, Vilaubi said.
In Gloucester County, the money now gone was to be used to help track and control communicable diseases such as measles; inspect restaurants and school cafeterias for food-borne illnesses; and underwrite youth drug and alcohol prevention programs.
“All of that money — pulled," Baylor said. “We have to get creative and try to absorb these functions into other parts of the department.”
In a statement explaining the cuts last month, HHS officials said, “The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”
But the money has been used for much more than treating COVID-19, health officials said.
In South Jersey, officials said they learned about the cuts on March 28, four days after they were made.
“It was literally five minutes to 5 p.m. on a Friday when we heard about it,” Baylor said. “We were like, ‘What?‘”
“No one around the country knew this was coming,” Brown said. “The losses are far-reaching, and we’re being left to fill in gaps.
“It’s a really troubling time for public health.”
Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr. agreed, saying in a statement on Friday, “It’s appalling, unconscionable and disconcerting that the Trump/Musk Administration would think to cut federal tax dollars to fund the work of the same heroes that served on the front lines of the pandemic.
“Make no mistake, this is not a political issue, but this is a decision made by two men who do not care about the health and welfare of anyone that is not uber rich ... ”